Just Step Sideways: Conspirators of Pleasure

Jan Svankmajer had always dabbled in the perverse in his short films, but his third feature film, Conspirators of Pleasure from 1996 goes full tilt. It’s hilarious, pointed and downright unnerving, even by his own surreal standards. All of the main preoccupations are present and correct here: bizarre puppetry; food, ritual and the act ofContinue reading “Just Step Sideways: Conspirators of Pleasure”

Disney’s Dream Debased: Alice

Few film makers are as incredible as the mighty Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. Like so many people of my generation, I was first aware of him in the early 90s, when Channel 4 screened his singular adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, abbreviated to simply Alice Alice, created in 1988, was a revelation. Beautiful, disturbingContinue reading “Disney’s Dream Debased: Alice”